Dr. Greg Olsen, a research scientist and entrepreneur who was the third private citizen to orbit the earth on the International Space Station, will deliver the commencement address at Raritan Valley Community College’s 43rd annual spring commencement, Saturday, May 19, at 11 a.m. Olsen also will receive an honorary degree during the ceremony, which will be held in on the soccer field at the College’s Branchburg Campus.
Approximately 970 students are expected to be awarded associate degrees or certificates.

Olsen was the third private citizen to orbit the earth on the International Space Station (ISS). After training for five months (900 hours) at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow, he launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket TMA-7 on Oct. 1, 2005 with Cosmonaut Valeri Tokarev and Astronaut Bill McArthur (Expedition 12). He then docked to the ISS on Oct. 3, and returned to earth on Soyuz TMA-6 on Oct. 11 with Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and Astronaut John Phillips (Expedition 11). He performed more than 150 orbits of the earth and logged almost four million miles of weightless travel during his 10 days in space.

After an illustrious career as a research scientist and entrepreneur, Olsen now serves as president of GHO Ventures in Princeton and also makes numerous speaking engagements to encourage children—especially minorities and females—to consider careers in science and engineering.